description of Spanish-Indian interaction as perceived archeologically at

mission sites, especially at Baptizing Spring, is presented.

The ethnohistorical analysis presented in Chapter Three is an in-

tegral part of this thesis since it established the research framework

employed in the study. Only selected aspects, however, are testable in

an archeological situation. Through documentary analysis it was found

that (1) economic and political controls were major cohesive factors of

the Floridamission system, and (2) the mission system in Florida col-

lapsed largely because of internal dissension brought about by the

11

failure of Spanish agents to meet Indian expectations of "proper"

behavior and their economic demands, not because of external forces in

the form of Yamassee and Carolinian raiders. The archeological thrust

of this research, also based on documentary evidence, was that Indians

and Spaniards attempted to maintain traditional political subsystems

by differentiating access rights to European goods.

CHAPTER TWO
CONCEPTS OF ECONOMIC ANTHROPOLOGY AND POLITICAL ORGANIZATION

A material transaction is usually a momentary episode in
a continuous social relation. The relation exerts gover-
nance: the flow of goods is constrained by, is part of,
a status etiquette (Sahlins 1965:139).

doms have been identified as redistributive societies (Service 1962:144).

A patron-client relationship is well-established between superordinates

and subordinates and the former concentrate power independent of that

allocated by the general populace (Adams 1975:228). The concept of

redistribution can be described in terms of centric, or focused, trans-

fers (unbalanced) characterized by the high degree to which they radiate

to or from a single individual or single community-wide institution.

This community-wide focal point is the distinguishing feature of centric

21.

L.... .APAL CHE
U,

El COASTAL LOWLAND

E CENTRAL HIGHLAND

D TALLAHASSEE RED HILLS .' '..

Figure 1. General Geomorphological Areas of Florida and Location of
Certain Eastern and Western Timucuan Tribes and the Apalache.

transfers which can be one-way or two-way. Centric transfers are

usually regressive in that goods and services flow from the poorer to

the richer (Pryor 1977:34, 250, 280, 286). Recently, the concept of

redistribution has been separated into four organizational forms col-

lectively viewed in the past as "redistribution." Briefly, these are:

1. levelling mechanisms -

2. householding

3. share-out

4. mobilization

institutionalized behavior that
counteracts the concentration of
wealth by individuals or groups
(e.g. ceremonial obligations,
potlaching); these mechanisms
have no single formal structure
but are distributive in their
effects

pooling and general consumption
of goods produced under division.
of labor characteristic of a
domestic unit

allocation of goods produced by
cooperative labor to participants
and owners of the factors of
production

recruitment of goods and services
for the benefit of a group not
coterminus with the contributing
members (Earle 1977:215)

To "share-out" can be added the allocation of goods to an "insurer,"

one who insures, at least in the minds of.the people, present and

future yields on production. Redistribution in the form of mobilization

is basic to ranked and stratified societies and should be interpreted as

and more often resulted in Indians leaving the missions to join British

allies or to go elsewhere. In 1676, Father Alonso del Moral (1676)

asked the king to aid Indians forced to work on the castillo in St.

Augustine. He reported that 300 natives from Apalache, Timucua, and

Guale were yearly brought to the capitol to work for the Spaniards. The

diocesan synod drafted the following statutes regarding Indian labor in

1684:

Many Spaniards, negroes, and mulattoes residing in St.
Augustine and other missions detain married Indian men
in their houses, who have their wives in other places
or who have gone to St. Augustine to work or dig but
are detained later to serve them this should not
be done because married persons should cohabit.

The wretched Indians, for being so, are none the less
Christians [nnd as such must be allowed to hear mass
!ilid not work on days of obligation. 1 [This was addres-
sed to] persons having Indians on their estates, even
as hired laborers (Statutes Relating to Florida n.d.:
5, 6-8).

The major concerns of the synod were aptly expressed: married people

should live together and Christians must attend mass and observe

regulations. The tone is somewhat less than sympathetic.

Mission Politics and Economics

In 1682, Bishop Juan de Palacios of Cuba asked the Crown to place

the missions in the hands of Jesuits or Dominicans because the Franciscans

"must be begged to fill parish and castillo [positions] in St. Augustine.

cilaso de la Vega was correct in describing location of elite dwellings

and important buildings around a central plaza and on a slight rise (a

pattern which has been identified in the prehistoric, stratified

societies of the Southeast) and this pattern was maintained during the

mission period as one similar to Spanish town arrangements, then the fol-

lowing hypotheses could be put forth.

1. Spanish buildings, as identified through
architectural features, would have been
located in central areas, possibly on a
rise, bordering on a plaza.

2. High-status Indians would have been
living nearest the Spanish area.

3. Decreasing status would be positively cor-
related with increasing distance from the
Spanish buildings and the plaza.

4. Status may be positively correlated with
dwelling size and elaborateness; ornamen-
tation of walls and use of European hard-
ware.

Artifacts' significance as prestige indicators may be shown through

correlation with aboriginal prestige goods if former high-status in-

dividuals maintained their rank and it was inherited by their descendants.

Such associations may not be found, however, given the fact that many

prehistoric prestige goods will not be preserved.. Restricted distribution

and differential access to goods will be assumed to correlate with pres-

tige and control. Scarce items, or those which were traded in or directed

toward priestly consumption, would be considered prestige goods within the

Indian sphere although not necessarily within the Spaniard's prestige

sphere.

5. The following trade goods, being similar in
form and function to native items, would be
classed within the Indian prestige sphere:
clothing (especially that with elaborate
designs, buttons, etc.), beads, bells, and
jewelry.

6. The following goods, although technically
subsistence sphere goods, would also be in-
cluded within the native prestige sphere
because of their coloring, quality, and
novelty: storage jars, majolica, and glass-
ware.

Test 2. Prestige goods will be fewer in number than
subsistence goods and native-manufactured
goods in the Indian living areas.

7. European trade goods associated with prestige
will have supplanted aboriginal prestige items.

70. If Indian patterns of reckoning prestige and
its accouterments were retained, then native
prestige goods or European equivalents will
be found in high-status living areas within
the Indian sector of the village.

8. Indian goods retained within the prestige
sphere will be those which were also
valued by Europeans such as.hides, precious
or semi-precious metals, pearls, and high-
status housing.

Test 1. Aboriginal and historic prestige items will
be found within the same household units.

Test 2. European prestige items may be more
numerous than prehistoric ones.

In order to have maintained or obtained rank within the new

Catholic-based hierarchy, Indians would have to have been good Christian

converts. If, as is common, religious medals and other symbolic parapher-

nalia were awarded for learning and observing catechism:

9. Religious items may be found more often in
conjunction with non-sacred prestige items
within high-status dwellings.

a. These items, if limited in quantity, will
tend to be concentrated in high-status areas
within the Indian village.

With regard to directional flow of non-food goods from Indians to

priests and Spanish government to priests:

10. If more Indian goods were given to priests than
European goods were to Indians, the ratio of
European to Indian goods would be higher for
Spaniards than for Indians, and

11. Cumulative total of goods per person would be
greater for priests, declining with decreasing
status.

a. European goods distributed among Indians may
have increased significance as prestige items.

Otto (1975:161, 219), working with material from a Georgia Sea

Island plantation, proposed that artifact diversity would be correlated

with different status groups such as.slaves, overseers, and planters.

In particular, he examined the variety of ceramic types and forms and

faunal assemblages in three midden areas of these different groups.

Kohler (1978:27-29) re-examined Otto's data and calculated an index of

diversity for each of the plantation middens. He then hypothesized and

tested the idea that in prehistoric sites ceramic type diversity would be

greater in high-status middens than in.lower status middens. The op-

posite was found to be true at the plantation site. The reason for dif-

ferent diversity measures of artifact assemblages was defined as differen-

tial access to goods. On the basis of these data and the assumption of

differential access to goods, one might expect the diversity of ceramic

types to be higher in the Spanish living area than in Indian living areas.

16. Introduced European food items such as cows,
pigs, chickens, peaches, oranges, etc.,
would have been restricted among Indians.

a. The above goods might have been available
only to priests who had greater access to
them through shipments from St. Augustine
or by demanding them as tithes/alms.

b. Cattle may not have been used as food
resources if they were not raised at mis-
sions or if their consumption was
primarily intended for soldiers and St.
Augustine where the market and slaughter
house were.

17. Priests and high-status Indians would have
received the best part (meatiest, most ten-
der) of hunted game plus proportionately
more of the domesticates than would lower
status individuals.

18. With their monopoly over production and alms
payments, priests' diets would have included
more European foods, been less diverse, and
of better nutritional value than diets of
Indians.

19. If livestock raised by Indians went primarily
to priests and/or soldiers, chickens, pigs,
and cattle remains will be poorly represented
in or absent from Indian dwelling areas.

The next chapter will present a review of previous archeological

research carried out at Florida mission period sites, most of which

concerns missions in northwest Florida (Apalache). It will also in-

clude research carried out in Suwannee County which is pertinent to

this study and descriptive data regarding methodology and the history of

excavations at the Baptizing Spring site.

CHAPTER FOUR
ARCHEOLOGICAL CONTEXTS OF SPANISH-INDIAN LIFE AT FLORIDA MISSIONS

Archeological data from other mission sites in Florida will be

examined in depth relative to findings at the Baptizing Spring site in

Chapter Six. This chapter presents a brief review of published works

relevant to mission archeology, summaries of previous hypotheses and

conclusions based on those data. The 1977 survey and excavation data

from Baptizing Spring are also presented.

Mission Archeology (1948-1977)

The earliest archeologically constructive interest in Florida mis-

sions was exhibited by Hale G. Smith. He defined and gave material sub-

stance to two historical archeological periods then called St. Augustine